The 46mm Race 3S brings dual-band GPS for up to 38 hours, a titanium bezel and sapphire glass to Suunto’s compact trail-running range, alongside a new AI coaching service.
Suunto has refreshed its trail-running range with the Race 3S, a smaller 46mm watch that is designed to bring longer battery life and more premium materials to compact wrists. The new model will go on sale in France on 15 October 2026 at €499, positioning it above the outgoing Race S and alongside the steel version of the larger Race 2, while still undercutting some rival multisport watches in the premium segment. According to Suunto, the Race 3S weighs 56g with its silicone strap and keeps the brand’s focus on off-road navigation, training analysis and endurance-focused battery performance.
Battery life is the main functional improvement over the earlier compact model. Suunto says the Race 3S lasts up to 38 hours in dual-band GPS mode and up to 12 days in everyday use, compared with 30 hours and 9 days for the Race S. The watch uses a dual-frequency satellite system intended to improve positioning in difficult terrain, such as wooded routes or narrow mountain sections, where single-band tracking can struggle. It also keeps the same 1.32-inch AMOLED panel as the previous compact watch, but raises brightness to 2,000 nits and adds a titanium bezel and sapphire crystal lens, replacing the less premium materials used on the Race S.
Internally, Suunto has reused much of the hardware from the larger Race 2, including the Ambiq Apollo510 processor and an optical heart-rate module built around six LEDs and four photodetectors. The Race 3S also carries 64GB of storage, which Suunto says is enough for maps, routes, training data and, eventually, offline music. The company says the watch supports more than 100 sports modes and free offline topo maps. It also retains support for ZoneSense when paired with a Suunto chest strap, a feature intended to estimate effort more dynamically than fixed heart-rate zones.
The other major addition is Suunto AI Coach, a conversational assistant embedded in the brand’s app. Suunto says it can answer training questions using the wearer’s own data, generate sessions and training plans, and build routes that can then be synced to the watch. Buyers who activate the watch in the app before 31 December 2026 will receive three months of access, suggesting that the service may later move behind a paid tier, although Suunto has not disclosed pricing. The company is launching the watch in three colours: Orchid, Feather and Black.
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